Redefining Asset Management in the Digital World

As CEOs strive to grow revenues and profits while balancing risk and customer satisfaction, they can choose to compete within a core or niche market; compete on price, quality, or uniqueness of product; or compete by innovating new products and services to attract and keep customers. At the same time, they spend millions, and even billions, to design, buy, operate, and decommission equipment and other physical assets essential to achieving business goals.

Asset managers, in turn, are responsible for supporting the CEO’s strategy by maximizing return on assets – for example, by ensuring asset uptime to reliably meet demand and control cost. Successful asset management – that follows the latest guidelines of ISO 55001 – maximizes return on assets consistently and reliably. It does this by optimizing cost, risk, and performance so that management can execute strategies and goals and fulfill customer orders on time and with expected quality.

This is no small task, as each day assets age, wear down, and break. New safety risks emerge, capital costs creep upward, and unexpected failures occur despite adherence to recommended maintenance schedules.

IT’S ALL ABOUT HARNESSING THE DATA

However, a tidal wave of change is upending the traditional world of asset management. Powerful technology innovations – powered by the Internet of Things (IoT), predictive analytics, augmented reality, pervasive mobility, and global business networks – are enabling the creation and analysis of data that is an order of magnitude larger in volume than what was available just a few years ago. This data can be harnessed to transform asset management practices and support the creation of new business models and processes.

Imagine having streaming data from sensors, machines, and other assets connected through the IoT – and then analyzing it to gain real-time transparency and decision support. Companies can share this data and drive collaboration across their ecosystem throughout the asset lifecycle for better asset outcomes. The possibilities are endless.

At SAP, we call this digital transformation – and it is the future of asset management.

Learn more and read the White Paper on Digital Transformation of Asset Management.